Border gulch fill-in faces the wet test

All eyes on dirt deposit as rain season approaches

The Smuggler's Gulch fence project is part of a federal plan dating to the mid-1990s that calls for 14 miles of contiguous secondary fencing running inland from the ocean.

The federal government is spending $60 million to complete approximately 3½ miles of secondary fencing that had yet to be built across the canyon, in Border Field State Park and in surrounding areas.

At a cost of $48.6 million, Smuggler's Gulch is by far the most expensive, and controversial, part of the project. Plans for the massive fill-in led to a February 2004 lawsuit against the federal government by environmental organizations such as the Sierra Club and the San Diego Audubon Society.

That same month, the California Coastal Commission stalled construction after concluding it would cause environmental damage to the estuary, which had cost millions in state and federal tax dollars to restore.

The next year, however, Congress passed legislation that enabled the Department of Homeland Security to waive all laws standing in the way of building the fence. The environmental lawsuit was dismissed in December 2005.
Leslie Berestein: (619) 542-4579;
leslie.berestein@uniontrib.com